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Dessert

Cream Puffs

A baked pastry filled with a sweet vanilla custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux paste

  1. Melt the butter in the boiling water.

  2. Sift together the flour and baking soda.

  3. Add the mixture to the butter and stir until smooth and thick.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 3 minutes after each addition.

Bake

  1. Drop 1 tablespoon of the mixture onto a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 to 30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine milk, 1 egg, sugar, flour, and vanilla in a saucepan and cook until thick.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the paste hold its shape as it puffs.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the paste a tender texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the paste and the filling together.
Milk
Adds moisture and body to the filling as it thickens.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Each egg must be fully worked into the hot paste before the next goes in. This makes the paste smooth and stretchy enough to hold its shape and puff in the oven.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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